This weekend is daylight savings time again. It comes every Spring and Fall with the popular saying "spring forward, fall back" to remind us to set our clocks ahead in March or April (thus losing an hour) and putting your clocks back in October or November (and gaining an hour).
Officially established after World War I, the main purpose of daylight savings is to make better use of daylight in the summertime.
But now studies are showing that daylight savings may not have been the smartest idea, since losing an hour can raise your risk of heart attack and seriously disrupt your child's schedule.
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A team from the University of Alabama did a study on what daylight savings does to a person's health and the results weren't so great. They found that the abrupt change in a person's daily schedule (a.k.a. waking up an hour earlier or later) can actually increase the risk of having a heart attack by 10%.
The effect isn't felt until Monday morning, when workers set their clock to a different time. Strangely enough, when the clocks go back in the fall, the risk of heart attack decreases by 10%. One of the study's authors explains why they aren't sure for the reasons:
Exactly why this happens is not known but there are several theories. Sleep deprivation, the body's circadian clock and immune responses all can come into play when considering reasons that changing the time by an hour can be detrimental to someone's health. The internal clocks in each cell can prepare it for stress or a stimulus. When time moves forward, cell clocks are anticipating another hour to sleep that they won't get, and the negative impact of the stress worsens; it has a much more detrimental effect on the body.
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Since Latinas have a higher risk of heart disease, this is pretty terrible news to me. More studies need to be done to figure out exactly what's going on here, but for now adjusting to the change in time is your best bet. Professor Young suggests easing yourself into Monday morning by waking up half an hour earlier than normal on the weekend, but I think adjusting in 15 minute increments is easier.
This weekend, to decrease your health risks due to daylight savings time, wake up on Saturday 15 minutes earlier than you would have during the week. On Sunday, after the change happens, wake up 30 minutes earlier and on Monday try 45 minutes earlier. It will help your body adjust better to the change in time. Just don't forget to set your clocks ahead!
Are you concerned about what will happen to your body when daylight savings happens this weekend?
Image via robmat26/flickr
